


You Remind Me Of Her (But Better)

by WereAllDeadInDevilTown



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Waitress - Bareilles/Nelson
Genre: AND GAY, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crushes, Domestic Violence, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fluff, Gay Panic, Implied/Referenced Abortion, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Modern Era, Musical References, Musicals, Mutual Pining, Unplanned Pregnancy, at least evie thinks so, based off the song from waitress, but it’s also cute, but she should be an artist, evie is very sad, it only takes a taste, mal is a doctor, mal is so awkward it hurts, umal past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:08:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24367066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WereAllDeadInDevilTown/pseuds/WereAllDeadInDevilTown
Summary: Evie Grimhilde isn’t a very happy 19 year old. She finally stood up to her vicious mother and moved out- but now she’s stuck with her boyfriend Chad who’s almost as insufferable as she was. After having to drop out of college and begin working a dead-end job as a waitress to make ends meet, she doesn’t think things can get much worse. Then, of course, she finds out she’s pregnant.Doctor Mal enters her life at perhaps the worst possible time. (Or the best, depending on how you look at it.){basically A WAITRESS THE MUSICAL AU where Evie is Jenna and Mal is Dr. Jim Pomatter based off the song IT ONLY TAKES A TASTE.}
Relationships: Evie & Mal (Disney), Evie/Mal (Disney)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 37





	You Remind Me Of Her (But Better)

Evie sat with her knees pulled high, her elbows propped up on them so she could rest her chin in her hands. She was worried if she closed her heavy eyes, sleep would genuinely take over her and she’d pass out right on the cold, metal bus bench she was perched on, missing her stop. So instead, the exhausted girl, looking not at all her best, focused on her dirt-scuffed white sneakers as if they were the most interesting things on this planet. She couldn’t stop replaying the events of the day in her head, remembering her early morning before her monotonous work day began. Maybe that was a good thing at the moment because it helped to keep her awake and avoid having to walk the 20 blocks to Chad’s shitty apartment for the second time that month. 

Today had been her first prenatal doctor’s appointment at the pregnancy clinic, and it had been overwhelming to say the least. She’d been so nervous going into it she woke up at the crack of dawn to bake a pie for whichever doctor greeted her, something she whipped up quietly in the kitchen even if only to calm her own nerves. After her appointment Evie felt more confident than ever in the fact that she was going to choose to abort as soon as possible. Given her age, finances, and current circumstances with her douchebag of a boyfriend, she simply wasn’t in any position to be a mother. Chad sure as hell wasn’t ready to be a father, and because she’d stopped all contact with her wicked witch of a mother a few months ago her and the anger-prone frat boy she found herself stuck with were practically broke. She was working her ass off as it was in order to save enough money up to safely leave her boyfriend’s ass and then go back to college for something she was actually passionate about, in that order. 

The doctors there had been nice enough and informative, reassuring her of their confidentiality policy. That had been her biggest concern really, not the act itself but the idea that either Chad or, worse, her blood-thirsty mother would find out about it. Either of them, or both of them if she was lucky, would kick her ass if they knew. _Literally_. Luckily, after her appointment with her consulate that morning, she was much less concerned about these things. So surprisingly enough, it wasn’t much to do with her unplanned pregnancy that had been weighing on Evie’s mind all day. It wasn’t the soreness in her feet or the way she could swear her work uniform clung a little tighter to her mid-section that led to her boss threatening to send her home after she refilled every ketchup dispenser in the diner with mustard on accident. 

No, it was the doctor’s intern, studying medicine at the local university, who’d sat in on her appointment that was the object of all her attention that Monday. She introduced herself as ‘ _Dr.Moores’_ , but Evie knew from her name tag that her first name was Mal. What a captivating name. She couldn’t have been much older than Evie herself, maybe a year or two her senior, but she’d been substantially shorter which elicited a good audible laugh out of her when she first entered the room- much to her embarrassment. She apologized profusely right away for her rudeness, but Mal didn’t seem very mussed by the whole thing, giving her a silent toothy grin from behind Evie’s ‘real’ doctor- who she was far less interested in. 

Evie stared at her for practically the whole hour she’d been at the facility, captivated by her. She had the prettiest purple hair, tied back loosely in a ponytail at the nape of her neck. It must’ve been pretty short though, because continuously pieces would escape from the hairstyle and fall into the intern’s eyes, sighing to herself as she tucked them behind her ears and continued jotting down notes. And when she lit up at the sight of Evie’s pie, her sparkling, cat like eyes the size of saucers as she graciously accepted it from her and cut a slice, Evie thought she would die right on the spot. She wanted to tell her doctor to shut up so she could watch the intern eat it properly and listen to her praises. 

Boy, did she look cute with whipped cream on her nose. She was thrilled the doctor didn’t have the heart to tell the student it was there until after the appointment was over, though Evie did have the satisfaction of watching her hurriedly and with a mortified expression wipe it off from a window in the parking lot. Evie couldn’t help but feel she didn’t look much like a doctor, not just because of her hair or visible forearm tattoo of a dragon, but because of her disposition. She was so relaxed and seemingly fun, this unquenchable fire in her green eyes that didn’t at all match the stuffy, desaturated scrubs she dawned. She looked more like a musician, or an artist, something carefree and creative. 

Which was why she _also_ couldn’t help but feel like the college student wasn’t actually taking notes on her clipboard for the vast majority of the time she’d watched her that morning. Not only because of the way her calloused hands moved her pen continuously in a way not typical of note-taking, but because when she excused herself to use the restroom while Evie’s doctor outlined multiple insurance plans for her the cheeky intern had left her clipboard in plain site for Evie to see- where in the margins of her college-ruled paper there were numerous doodles of her. Evie nearly blushed, thinking that if she didn’t know any better the girl was outwardly flirting with her. 

Of course all day Evie had been trying to push this thought away, swallowing back the idea for a multitude of reasons, the biggest of which being that it made her stomach swarm with butterflies in a way it hadn’t in a long time, if ever. Why would a girl like her, have been flirting with someone like Evie? Evie didn’t find herself to be very appealing on even her best of days, let alone today. Her curly mess of blue hair had been thrown back into a lazy ponytail and she’d been wearing hardly any makeup at all. Furthermore, she’d been wearing her unflattering and stained waitress uniform knowing that she would be at work only an hour after her appointment. 

Perhaps most importantly, their first impression had been at an abortion consultate. Not a very romantic or particularly good impression, especially when Evie was as young as she was. Not that the girl had given off any air of judgment in any way, or asked any prying questions, but Evie just couldn’t fathom that someone who knew one of her biggest guilts could still see her as a viable partner. Maybe if she knew the whole story, that her jock, meat-for-brains boyfriend who didn’t take no for an answer had gotten her drunk out of her mind so he could-

“-Ms.Grimhilde!?”   
Evie jumped wildly at the voice not having realized she’d, somehow, managed to close her eyes without even realizing. Quickly she woke from her thoughts, grabbing the purse beside her and clutching it tightly to her side defensively before looking up to meet very bright emerald eyes staring bemusedly back at her. It took her a moment too long to close her opened mouth.   
“-Yes! Sorry um, please call me Evie- _Dr.Moores_?”

The girl with her vibrant purple hair now down to graze her shoulders rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.   
“Oh please, call me Mal. I’m just a medical intern anyway, I doubt we’re more than a year or two different in age actually.”   
Evie cringed a little at her words, wondering if she was intentionally taking a jab at the fact that she was so young and pregnant. Seemingly reading her thoughts, or maybe just noticing the way Evie’s indigo eyebrows furrowed, Mal quickly continued.

“I’m uh, here because I had some ride conflicts this morning and had to take the bus....What about you? Do you always take the bus?”   
Evie was taken back a little bit by how awkward Mal came off. It didn’t at all match her cool, unbothered demeanor the way she stumbled on her words, stuffed her fists in her pockets and scuffed her converse against the concrete. Evie briefly wondered if maybe she made her nervous, before brushing the thought away before it could turn her ears red.   
“Oh just Tuesday nights. My boyfriend goes out drinking with the boys, so he can’t pick me up from work.”

If the mention of a boyfriend took Mal by surprise, she disguised it on her face well, nodding nonchalantly.   
“Oh well that’s nice- for him I mean! Nice that you um, let him-”   
“I love Tuesdays.”   
Evie didn’t realize Mal was giving her an odd look until it’d been quiet for a moment too long, and she cringed wondering if maybe that was a weird thing to have said. Which Mal thought it was, but even if her voice betrayed her the young college student had gotten pretty good at mastering a somewhat expressionless face even in the oddest of conversation. 

Mal almost didn’t approach Evie when she first saw her sitting there on the bus bench by herself, spacing out and staring at the ground. Or sleeping, Mal couldn’t quite tell. Neither option seemed very good in any case, so Mal convinced herself it would be the right thing to do if she walked up and made pleasant conversation with someone she recognized from her first day on the job. Afterall, she might be saving her from missing her ride home! It didn’t have anything to do with the way she couldn’t stop thinking about the encapsulating girl all day...those dark amber eyes, curly hair as vibrant as her’s, and charming smile. No, not at all.  
  
“..So um, where do you live?”   
Mal was a little thrown off by the question, wondering if by chance Evie was just as ridiculously curious about her backstory as she was her’s. She doubted it, considering the mention of a boyfriend back at home, even if she didn’t speak of him very fondly. In fact it made Mal a little uncomfortable and anxious to hear how happy she was to have him gone for the night, but how was that any of her business?   
“Oh uh, on Stanton Grove.”   
Evie’s eyebrows raised as if she were impressed, nodding her head with a warm smile.   
“Wow, it’s nice over there.”   
  
Mal scoffed and shrugged, resisting the urge to rub the back of her neck once again as this girl prettier than anyone else she’d ever seen before looked at her like she was someone to look at. If she knew she only lived there because her mother was a conniving gold digger without a caring bone in her body god-forbid that should get in the way of their societal success, would she be nearly as impressed?   
“Oh I mean sure if you..like trees...which I mean who doesn’t! Like trees, I mean.”   
Mal nearly cursed out loud at her utter inability to speak in front of this girl, when suddenly she laughed and Mal thought she might fall flat on her ass. It wasn’t a big laugh, just a small chuckle that Evie covered her mouth to dampen, but Mal felt her blood run cold. Or unbelievably scolding, she couldn’t be sure. The misstepped doctor’s assistant would’ve made a fool of herself ten times over if it meant hearing that sound again.   
  
After a long pause, Mal cleared her throat and gestured towards the half empty bench, building up the courage to speak again.   
“Do you mind if I sit?”   
Evie hurriedly scooched over to the edge of the bench, as if her and her belongings had been taking up much space to begin with. She smiled bashfully, like she was ashamed of herself for not having offered the seat up earlier.   
“No of course!”   
Mal smiled back appreciatively, studying Evie’s outfit as she sat. It was a light blue dress with a white apron over top of it, with black tights underneath that had the smallest of rips in the knees. She found this very endearing.   
  
“So, you’re a waitress?”   
Evie felt like she was going to die on the spot, all the butterflies in her stomach flapping against her ribcage with such ferocity she thought they might start climbing up her throat for escape. Of course she had to be wearing her ugly uniform. Why did she have to be wearing her uniform?   
“I’m a waitress!”   
Evie gestured to her outfit with false enthusiasm and an awkward laugh that died as soon as it left her mouth.   
“Where do you work?”   
This conversation just kept getting better.   
“That little place off highway 27, Joe’s Pie Diner?   
  
Mal thought for a moment before finally shrugging, indicating that she’d never heard of the place before. Evie wasn’t very surprised, even though it was a fairly small town, Joe’s was also a fairly small diner, and it wasn’t the nicest one at that. Not the kind of place a girl who lived in a nice neighbourhood and was going to school to be a doctor would frequent, anyway. It wasn’t the kind of place Evie would’ve ever seen herself frequenting let alone working at even just a few short months ago either, but here she was.   
“Well hey, we serve 27 different varieties of pie if you ever get a craving!”   
“Wow! Must be a virtual pie factory.”   
  
Evie chuckled, searching through her purse mindlessly in hopes of avoiding Mal’s eyes. Half because she was embarrassed by this conversation, and half because she was sure her face was unbelievably visibly red judging by how hot it felt.   
“Oh well, I make the pies fresh every morning. Breakfast pies, dinner pies and a special new pie that I invent every day.”   
Mal looked genuinely taken back for a minute, forcing Evie to meet her eyes after the long silence so she could see the genuine shock she wore. It made Evie smile against her better judgment, feeling almost a little prideful.   
“...Wait so, did _you_ make that marshmallow pie you gave me this morning!?”   
  
“I did! It’s called a Mermaid Marshmallow pie, actually. I made that one up when I was just nine years old one day, when mommy was in a good mood and let me use the kitchen.”   
Evie cringed at the way she still instinctively referred to her mother as ‘mommy’ in conversation. If there was one good thing her mother had ever done for though, she guessed it would be introducing her to sewing and cooking, even if it was for all the wrong reasons. Unbeknownst to her, these things would become Evie’s only much needed outlet in life.   
“Okay well, um, not to be dramatic but that was probably the best pie I have ever tasted in my whole life.”   
  
Mal had to stop herself from reaching over and grabbing Evie by the shoulders when she saw the immediate doubt cloud her face, a sad smile replacing her real one as she pivoted her body away from Mal and shook her head.   
“No seriously Evie, that pie could win contests and, and, ribbons and things!”   
Mal was incredibly flustered at her inability to articulately explain how sincerely good she thought Evie’s gift had been, feeling unconvinced even by her own words. She was confused when she looked up and saw Evie full on frowning at her feet.   
“...Wow um, what a thing to say.”   
  
Mal’s heart sank. Had she hurt her feelings somehow?   
“I’m sorry that was meant to be a compliment.”   
Evie laughed another hollow laugh, rubbing and squeezing her bare arms as she wrapped around herself.   
“I know, that’s why it made me uncomfortable. I just don’t get complimented much, but thank you.”   
Mal couldn’t hide the look of absolute confusion that overtook her facial expression when Evie said that. Looking at the unbelievably gorgeous and seemingly very talented girl she was sitting beside at the moment, that sentence simply didn’t sit right with the purple-haired girl. Or, sit with her at all. 

“Baking isn’t even my favorite thing to do anyway. I’d rather be sewing and designing, it’s what I used to go to college for. I don’t really have the time for it anymore though…”   
Mal resonated with that more than Evie could’ve known, seeing that she’d wanted to be an artist so badly before her mother shot down the idea. She wanted to tell her this, pour her heart out to someone she hardly even knew at all, but sensing Evie’s discomfort Mal decided maybe it’d just be best to change the conversation entirely. 

“...Okay um, ya know what’s kinda funny? Just seeing you, sitting here, all by yourself in your uniform you remind me of a girl I once knew. Gosh, by now she’s probably already graduated from college and living in some crack den, or even better yet she’s dead.”  
Maybe bringing her ex up wasn’t the smoothest of ways to transition the conversation, but the thought had been weighing on her mind since she first turned the corner and saw Evie there. It wasn’t that they looked alike physically, except for the waitressing outfit of course, but it was something else about her. Where her ex was course, and strident, Evie was all soft edges and hidden smiles. Truthfully she wasn’t much her usual type at all. But maybe it was something about the way there seemed to be so much to her- like there were a million little secrets bubbling at the surface ready to spill over. Uma always had that sort of energy about her, and it was enticing until it wasn’t. 

“Gee...thank you?”  
Mal took far longer than was appropriate to realize why Evie would look absolutely horrified at being compared to someone Mal just said was probably dead in a gutter somewhere.   
“Oh my God no, no, no! She was a waitress too!”   
Evie looked only mildly relieved, looking away from Mal to smooth out her wrinkled outfit.   
“...She worked at this seafood place downtown that I used to frequent quite a lot in highschool. Nice teeth, and small hands, and blue hair, actually. She snuck me goodies and meals I couldn’t afford then. She was sweet to me. Reminds me of you.”   
  
Evie softened at Mal’s tone of voice. Glancing up from the blue buttons on her uniform only briefly to see the glossed over look in her green eyes, Evie could tell Mal was very much so abbreviating the story- but she didn’t push it. Pushing things wasn’t really Evie’s thing.   
“Oh. Well. No one ever really notices me _that_ way, so…”   
Mal cocked her head.   
“Well somebody did, right?”   
“Hmm?”   
“Ya know because you..have the...baby thing going on....”   
  
Mal knew the minute the words left her mouth that she shouldn’t have said them- she was lucky if Evie didn’t just fly off the bench right then and there and call first thing in the morning to request a new doctor. It was never more painfully obvious to Mal than then- looking at Evie’s very red face and watery eyes as she bit her lip and scowled at her shoes that she had no idea of this girl’s situation. But stronger than ever did she get the sensation that she wanted to.   
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”   
“It’s fine.”   
It definitely wasn’t. But Mal was awkward and so scared of messing things up further that she just continued on like she hadn’t said anything. 

“Well this girl, she’d make the pies fresh every day. Like you, I guess, but, not to sound lame, but- if pies were books your’s would be like, Shakespear’s letters.”  
Evie lifted her eyes carefully to study Mal again. She looked gorgeous in the glow of the moth-ridden street lamp above them, her eyebrows carefully knit in concentration, like she was trying _awfully_ hard not to say something she’d regret...again. Evie found it kind of cute, honestly, and had to bite her lip harder to keep from smiling. If this had been anyone else, Evie would have run off ten times over. So why was it that when this girl, a total _stranger,_ looked at her like she hung the moon and complimented the cooking skills that only reminded her of her mother she wanted to lean in and-   
“You remind me of her, but...better.”   
  
Silence. The cicadas around them chirped noisily. Evie couldn’t remember the bus stop this empty on a Tuesday night in a long time, and it was starting to feel like this was all some kind of cosmic prank on her.   
“It’s like, it only takes a taste, ya know?”   
Evie accidentally met Mal’s eyes and suddenly she was trapped, her breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t look away. Did she want to? Did Mal just scooch closer to her?   
“What do you mean?”   
Mal grabbed her hand excitedly- okay she’d _definitely_ moved closer to her.   
“Like, with you- I mean, with your pies! It only takes one taste to know it’s good...sometimes one bite is more than enough to know you want more? Does that make any sense?”   
It made an unbelievable amount of sense. Evie pulled her hand away carefully and then sat on it, looking out across the empty parking lot in front of them. 

“Heh, that reminds me of a thing we would say me and my mommy in the kitchen when we’d bake. She’d say, “Evelyn, you should be able to tell a whole story with a taste”.”  
Mal nearly shot out of her seat and Evie laughed, tugging at the ends of her hair. She was so alive, so excited, so full of light. It made Evie want to get up and dance even if there was no music playing, it made her want to scream and laugh and run free from this stupid town. It made her feel for the first time in a while she realized like she too was alive.   
“No! Yes! That’s exactly what I mean!! I swear that as those flavors mixed and melted I could hear the sirens sing! It was...truly something special.”   
  
Perhaps noticing how pent up she was getting Mal sat back down, smiling sheepishly as she played with the hair-tie around her wrist. But when she turned to look again at Evie she was smiling out at the horizon- no, _beaming_ . Quickly she looked back down at her lap, not wanting to get caught staring. But she’d made her smile?   
“It made me escape the room I was in.”   
She wanted to ask Evie if she ever felt like escaping, if she ever could see herself escaping with someone like her.   
“I just, couldn’t help but wonder how your hands must’ve felt creating such a masterful thing like that.”   
  
When Mal cautiously turned her head again Evie wasn’t looking out at the dark sky, she was staring straight at her- close enough that she could feel her warm breath on her face.   
“Just that one bite, caused all that wondering?”   
Evie’s voice was so unbelievably soft she was practically whispering, but the look in her dark eyes made it come off almost as more of a plea. Mal wanted so badly to reach out and touch her lips with the rough pad of her thumb. She wanted to sweep her up in her arms and take her to dinner, a movie, the park- anywhere she was willing to go with her. 

Instead she resigned to carefully lean in and tuck a curly strand of dark blue hair behind Evie’s red ear. She flashed her a toothy grin, seeing from the corner of her eye as her bus pulled up to the station.   
“...It only takes a taste when you know it’s good.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this!! If literally anyone enjoyed this please comment and let me know because I don’t know how much of an interest there will be in this story, considering it’s kind of a niche audience haha, but please if you made it to the end let me know what you thought! For some reason when I heard this song it just made me think of them and I knew I had to write it, and I ended up way more attached to the universe than intended honestly! Some of the other ideas I have for this universe building off this oneshot include:  
> -a oneshot based off of You Will Still Be Mine with Evie and Chad  
> -a oneshot based off of When He Sees Me in which Mal gushes to Jay abt Evie and Evie gushes to Jane and Audrey about Mal respectively  
> ANWAY I digress thank you for reading srsly love you guys, way more writing to come once my school lets out!! <3


End file.
